Monthly Archives: January 2012

Before Whitetruffle, we launched Oleboo, an iPhone app that let sports fans cheer for their team while watching a game live. The idea was to extend the stadium to wherever you are, so you can share your emotions with anyone who’s watching.

The app got more than 20,000 downloads in a few weeks after launch, mainly driven by the fact that Apple was showing us on the homepage of the app store under the what’s new and what’s hot. We even got in the top 20 of the sports apps.

Yet, we decided to stop. Let me explain why we stopped, and what we learnt.

We stopped because “appointment products” are really hard to drive traffic to. The ESPN, Yahoo! or Fox of the world can do it, but when you’re a young boostrapped startup, it’s really, really hard, and I didn’t see us being able to make it. It’s already difficult to get users to come to a site that’s available 24hrs a day, it’s 100 times harder to get people to come at a specific time of that day.

That was really the main reason. I couldn’t find a solution that didn’t involve spending lot of $ to be able to acquire users, but more importantly, engage them in the long term.

Today, there are lot of second screen experience products. Some more successful than others, but it’s still very early, and it’s definitely a space that will evolve tremendously over time. In my opinion, to be successful, they’re going to have to pay attention to the following:

– They shouldn’t substitute themselves to the game. The main action is the game. Don’t ask your users to spend all their attention on the second screen. Interaction with the second screen should be super fast to make sure you still enjoy the game.

– Don’t try to create a new social network. People already talk about what’s going on. Twitter, Facebook etc… Aggregate content from those platforms, allow for crossharing.

– Extend the program hours. This is the only way you can fight the “appointment” issue. Give your users something they can do before and after the program. Predictions, comments, bets whatever. But your app has to be open 24hrs a day.

– Enhance the experience with mobile devices. For real. Don’t just pretend. Citizen sports is doing this very well with the “claim your bar” feature (geo location). Fans can own a real bar in the city!!!!

– Fight the “empty experience”. Make sure you don’t offer too many programs with nobody following them. It’s a true community product, therefore you need make sure you have enough people who would watch a specific program before offering them.

– The phone (or whatever device you’re using) should automatically detect what you’re watching. Intake does it very well (well, expect for sports because it’s super hard).

It’s a fun space, and we’re going to see lot of innovation in the coming years.

The win against the Saints was incredible. The defeat again the Giants is really bitter.

At the moment of the final kick, all I could think of was Kyle Williams. I went through many different emotional states before being able to actually look at things with some perspective. But when I did, my view was very different.

Of course Williams makes 2 huge mistakes. But that’s sports. Mistakes are going to happen. What’s really sad is that one of them is during overtime. But thinking about it, this young guy, who was not even playing at his usual position on the field, shouldn’t have been put in that situation in the first place. There shouldn’t have been an overtime. We had the ball to win it, and we didn’t.

For me, that’s what’s frustrating. We had it. Even with the first fumble, we still had it. How many chances do you want to win a game? We had the ball numerous times in the last 4 minutes to win it. We had the ball in overtime. And we weren’t able to close it.

You can’t ask your defense or special teams to do wonders all the time. There is a point when things break, especially when you play against a very talented Giants team.

When reading this article, I was very proud of the team. Maybe the fans don’t realize it, but you can’t blame a player for trying to make a play. His intentions were good and you never, ever punish someone who has the best intentions. He didn’t lose the game. The team did.

That team showed on the field and off the field that they’re a great team. Great teams always end up winning. But on the way, there are always defeats. You take it, stand up, and come back. You keep doing it. Until you win.